Pockets, Buttons and Hangers: Designing a new uniform for health care professionals

The aim of this article is to study how a new uniform program for health care professionals in a Danish region came into being as a negotiation between a number of heterogeneous actors who fundamentally influenced the final design. The crux of this type of design is formed by conflicting demands: that the garment should be able to accommodate the user’s bodily existence and that it must be adapted to the lean and rational maintenance processes of modern day health care. Drawing on Actor-Network Theory, the article explores the complex interplay between the different actors involved in the design process and discusses the uniform as a design product that combines the meticulous functional analysis of industrial design with concerns about self-presentation and identity of fashion and dress.